Ideal Walleye Lake

Describe your ideal walleye lake or river?

What is your ideal fishing experience on your ideal walleye lake, on a good day?

With in a half hour drive, no bigger that a couple thousand acres. Good structure, predictable weeds, good boat launch with a street light, not crowded but also not deserted, holds walleye but has plenty of other species as well, accurate contour map on lakemaster chip and navionics app, water clean enough to swim in. Man, that list just kept getting longer. You did say ideal though

There’s one in Ontario I know of…smaller 750 acre lake that is postage only. Mr. average is ~20″ or so but a very high volume lake. Easy to fish rock piles only using yellow 3 to 4″ mister twisters. It’s not mapped and we fish it without electronics too. On a good day we can boat 150 to 200 fish. That’s my version of an ideal lake.

Ideally it has 1 cabin on it, you fly to it… it has billions of hungry eyes… actually I am going in June again, it is in N. Manitoba. I will boat about 400+ the first day and go down from there as I will take more breaks from fishing and just relax. (oh yeah, and it has never seen a net)

kwp wrote:

There’s one in Ontario I know of…smaller 750 acre lake that is postage only. Mr. average is ~20″ or so but a very high volume lake. Easy to fish rock piles only using yellow 3 to 4″ mister twisters. It’s not mapped and we fish it without electronics too. On a good day we can boat 150 to 200 fish. That’s my version of an ideal lake.

Hey, it’s seems like I’ve been to that lake… That’s my answer too.

Just to add to the description, the walleyes bite at multiple depths as shallow as 3 feet and all throughout the day. Even in bright sunlight, July heat, and calm weather the fish are up in the shallows in less than 10 feet. The fish are so bold that they will strike multiple times, it’s not uncommon to have 2 bump/miss strikes and yet the fish comes around for a third try and gets hooked.

Hey, I’m not afraid to admit that I actually enjoy boating 100+ walleyes in a day and hey, if they only average only 20 inches, well, I can live with that. You probably aren’t going to catch the biggie on this lake, but I can sell myself on the fact that volume matters.

I don’t have to make up an ideal, it has been my great privilege and honor to have seen it with my own eyes.

Grouse

My ideal walleye lake must have lots and lots of gill nets being pulled around on it.

touche to the trolling sturgeon guy

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

kwp wrote:
There’s one in Ontario I know of…smaller 750 acre lake that is postage only. Mr. average is ~20″ or so but a very high volume lake. Easy to fish rock piles only using yellow 3 to 4″ mister twisters. It’s not mapped and we fish it without electronics too. On a good day we can boat 150 to 200 fish. That’s my version of an ideal lake.
Hey, it’s seems like I’ve been to that lake… That’s my answer too.

x3 Been there, done that, and trying to schedule my next trip.

The numbers are good but the experience is even better. Only boat on the lake. Super simple out of a small boat with a 6 horse. Shore lunch. Back to basics. Think I need to put in my vacation request now

In my back yard, ~3,000 acres, lots of structure like humps, reefs, rock piles, dropoffs, holes and the likes. Varying bottom composotions like mud, sand, rocks, gravel etc with good transition areas from one to the next. Very predictable weed edges in the shallows. A few nice, deep mud flats, great forage base, multi species opportunities, a couple protected shallow bays, an inlet and outlet to a river, varying water clarities, multiple quality access points on all sides, an extremely detailed contour map that accounts for rising and falling water levels, and a bait shop/convenience store/restaurant/lodge on the lakeshore. Does that sound too good to be true?

Not trolling guys. Just hearing out many folks ideal fishing expectations on a good day on their ideal fishery.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Not trolling guys. Just soaking some cut bait.

I’m not telling anyone a thing about my favorite Lake. It’s not full of hungry eyes…it makes you earn every fish. Satisfaction in working hard

Small rivers are the most fun for me. Kettle, Snake, upper St. Croix, etc. Lots of nice fish and less company. Plus, if you don’t have 50 grand in your boat budget you can still catch fish.

Randy Wieland wrote:

Satisfaction in working hard

Agreed. Have no ideal lake. Canada lake we go to seems similar to others. Perhaps its me but catching 100s of ravenous fish just isn’t all that alluring after the first day. And quite honestly, my freaking arm is strained by that time.

I get absolutely excited head over heals coming off the water with the wife from Eagle lake in Plymouth, a small few hundred acre “put and take” walleye lake with catching several in the morning with a low 20s” mixed in, as I do going up to Mille Lacs putting half dozen mid to upper 20s” fish in a day, or catching that one upper 20s” in the fall around the North metro river where big fish are hard to come by.

It’s all about setting expectations IMO. Perhaps its just bc I don’t get out as much as I want, but any water at this point in my life is ideal. They all have their own traits that can be challenging, yet fun to figure out.

Bk isn’t going to say it, so I will. One that can be drained.

BK would also want a river or lake that doesnt have eels in it!!!

My favorite lake right now is Cedar Lake Ont.
It’s big enough that I don’t get bored, but small enough that I can fish it in about any reasonable wind. It’s a drive to so I can use my own boat. The fishing is good enough that I can catch walleyes almost any day during the daytime, but it is challenging enough to keep me on my toes. The walleye run mostly 14″ to 22″, but we get fish over 27″ most weeks and there are some whales there.It has varied structure and we get fish everywhere from 3′ to over 35′ in weeds rocks sand flats, etc. It also has good musky and smallmouth fishing. The only thing that keeps it from being ideal is it is so far from my home.

There are lots of other lakes in north west Ont. that are just as good.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Just to add to the description, the walleyes bite at multiple depths as shallow as 3 feet and all throughout the day. Even in bright sunlight, July heat, and calm weather the fish are up in the shallows in less than 10 feet.

Sounds a little like an America song: “Been walleye fishing on a lake with no name. It felt good to get out of the rain…”

one the DNR isn’t involved in.

There is something about big water. Looking out over miles of blue or seeing the moon reflected across the water.

And boobs, if we are talking ideal lake, it would have lots of boobs to look at.

DaveB wrote:

There is something about big water. Looking out over miles of blue or seeing the moon reflected across the water.

And boobs, if we are talking ideal lake, it would have lots of boobs to look at.

My ideal walleye lake wouldn’t even have to have walleyes in it as long as these keep washing upon the beach….

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tegg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
Just to add to the description, the walleyes bite at multiple depths as shallow as 3 feet and all throughout the day. Even in bright sunlight, July heat, and calm weather the fish are up in the shallows in less than 10 feet.

Sounds a little like an America song: “Been walleye fishing on a lake with no name. It felt good to get out of the rain…”

Last summer, to be honest, it was so damn hot out there on this lake we’ll call “Noname Lake” that I was actually thinking it would be nice if it rained. Just to break the heat.

It was every bit of 87-90 degrees when we fished it. It is hard to overstate how unlikely it it seemed that the walleys on this Noname Lake are going to bite at all. I mean, there you are in BRIGHT sun at high noon, the lake is absolutely clear (albeit in that peat-stained Canada way), and there’s only enough breeze to keep the surface of the water moving. It was about as unlikely of a day for good walleye fishing as I could imagine.

KWP could say for sure, but I highly doubt we were catching many fish below 6 feet.

And all the while, were were out there absolutely alone. Not a single other boat on the entire lake. Occasionally, a float plane would cross on the horizon, but it was absolutely still and completely quiet.

The ideal lake, IMO. It just makes you wonder how many of those thousands and thousands of tiny Ontario lakes are just as good. Or better.

Grouse

My ideal Walleye lake would have sportsman that are respectful of each other. Not pushing you off your spot, or throwing their anchor on top of you, or trolling around you in circles when they see you catch a Walleye.
I’ve gotten pretty good at combat fishing over the years because of people like that. It seems like it has gotten worse over the years.
Or maybe I should just go to a Canadian fly in lake and not worry about it.